Sudden Inspiration...

[J-Dude]

Okay, first off I want to point out that this idea may be worth nothing if it means that it would lag servers all to Hell, but just passing through a modding website, I came across a Half Life mod called "Half Life FX". This mod reported to be capable of making the Half Life Engine (not Source) use the following (according to their posts)

Static diffuse and specular (PS2.0 only) bump-mapping
- Dynamic bump-mapping (PS2.0 only) for flashlight
- Parallax mapping (PS2.0 only)
- Shader script system (a la Quake3)
- Water with reflections and refractions
- Projective soft shadows
- Volumetric fog
- Mirrors
- Projective flashlight
- Hi-resolution decals
- Detail textures
- Post-process effects, motion blur, light bloom
- Lens flare, heat haze
- Particle systems
- Anisotropic texture filtering
- And even more...


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I dunno about you, but these things could graphically beef up ESF in a hundred ways, from effects to landscape to characters. They even have a workable demo with some of these features, so you can look into their code and see how they did it.

The mod is featured here: http://mods.moddb.com/8758/half-life-fx-single/

Again, I might be missing something critical and this whole idea may not be worth what I think, but if it helps in any way, or gives any sort of inspiration, I'll be glad to have posted this here.

I hope this helps in some form

 

[vinay87]

That would be uber pwnage on the eyecandy part. But sadly I wouldnt be too happy seeing this since I dont have a video card. But these features seem to have a problem even with Radeon 7000and GEForce 6800....

Hmm anyone has any idea if itll run smoothly with 1 GB RAM instead of a video card? It it does, I'm all for it lol.

 

[J-Dude]

Hopefully if such a thing were implemented, like in HL2 the features could be turned on or off to suit the PC's hardware capabilites, or maybe even be able to auto-detect and auto-set the optimum balance of quality and performance for your machine. I mean, since the game isn't cell-shaded, you might as well make the graphics look as true-to-life as possible (for Half Life, of course). The idea of volumetrics, better lights and things like motion blur alone sound appealing, but add on top of that the bump mapping and higher-level textures which would make characters look totally awesome and you've got an instant quantum leap in graphics. I've seen in the mod just how much better the models look with better textures. The scientists faces no longer look flat and stretched like they do in the main HL, they looked smoothed and organic. The lighting also looked superb. As opposed to HL's original flashlight which worked terribly on geometry, this new lighting illuminates it's targets like in HL2. I know this mod will never see the Source Engine, but this seems like the next best thing.

 

[RavenTrunks]

Before Break The Limit was scrapped, we had Bloom effect and motion blur. But the downfall is that, the mod would have to block the anti-cheat from turning on, since this counts as a bannable cheat. I dont know why it does, but it is.

But i will say this... it made the games beams/explosions look unbeleivable... i mean awsome.

 

[Super Veggeto]

Nice, with shader scripts I believe we could fake Cell Shading.

 

[Mountain Dewd]

Those are all features that are basically hacked into HL.

They'd be great, but at the moment the team isnt even taking advantage of Detail textures (fakey-bump maps) the only map that includes them is TOM.

Its incredibly easy to set these up, I cant see why they dont do it.

 

[J-Dude]

Well, I was expecting somebody to tell me that it would either lag servers crazily or that it was unfeasible with the code. But Hell, if this is actually a possibility, we should speak to PCjoe about this. I heard something about him designing a new effects engine, and any of these things would probably help immensely.

Although, he may be a step ahead of us, and is already secretly implementing these features without our knowledge

 

[Mountain Dewd]

I'm pretty sure its been stated before that the team decided not to hack a bunch of shaders and whatnot into HL.

The effects system in question, to my knowledge relates to particle and lighting effects.

 

[J-Dude]

I'm pretty sure its been stated before that the team decided not to hack a bunch of shaders and whatnot into HL.

?

Why the Hell not?

 

[MC]

The Goldsrc engine has it limits, no matter what you add to it. Most of the things included in your list can only be faked since actual application requires a lot of coding. Unfortunately, you are limited to what you can code with the Half-Life SDK (which I assume the team uses).

 

[Mountain Dewd]

Why the Hell not?

Maybe they want to concentrate on gameplay

I dont play Esf for eyecandy.

Still, Detail textures are already supported, I dont see why they dont atleast take advantage of that.

 

[RavenTrunks]

Although, he may be a step ahead of us, and is already secretly implementing these features without our knowledge

I already offered the bloom effect they were thinking about it but decided not to do it. I have some screen shots of wwhat esf looks like with it, I toggled it on and off for myself when I was still testing 1.3.

bloom effect ps
blooom effect aura
bloom effect explosion

Every once in a while i still use the bloom effect for the new build and when i play 1.2

 

[Grega]

I already offered the bloom effect they were thinking about it but decided not to do it. I have some screen shots of wwhat esf looks like with it, I toggled it on and off for myself when I was still testing 1.3.

bloom effect ps
blooom effect aura
bloom effect explosion

Every once in a while i still use the bloom effect for the new build and when i play 1.2

Hehe yea i remember the preview we had in BTL. Sadly David is still VAC banned cause of that bloom efect ^^ Jinto is to if i remember correctly.

Would be interesting to see taht ingame though.

 

[DJKiwi]

well.. the game must look good else i don't play it..
for example my aura's were broken then i didn't play the game until i reinstalled my whole pc

graphics are important.. but i think theyre fine as they are

 

[Grega]

well.. the game must look good else i don't play it..
for example my aura's were broken then i didn't play the game until i reinstalled my whole pc

graphics are important.. but i think theyre fine as they are

And if you play the game or not is important in what way?

Dont be ofended but 1 person saying i wont play wont do a thing on this forum.

 

[DaRkOwNs]

well.. the game must look good else i don't play it..
for example my aura's were broken then i didn't play the game until i reinstalled my whole pc

graphics are important.. but i think theyre fine as they are

thats extremely narrow minded, its not graphics that make a good game. its gameplay (which i think is why most hl1 mods kick hl2 mods asses).

grega's right anyway, no one cares whether you play or not.